Humboldt Park

Under a warm summer sky, the residents of Humboldt Park and adjoining neighborhoods snuggle on the park's lawn to watch Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks' production of A Midsummer's Night's Dream.

Under a warm summer sky, the residents of Humboldt Park and adjoining neighborhoods snuggle on the park's lawn to watch Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks' production of A Midsummer's Night's Dream. (Chuck Berman, Chicago Tribune)

The Humboldt Park neighborhood has been a changing landscape of ethnicity since the 207 acre park, which anchors the center of the community, was laid-out in the 1870s. Named after the famous German naturalist and geographer, Alexander von Humboldt, the neighborhood has been home to Scandinavian, Italian, Jewish, Polish, German, and Puerto Rican immigrants throughout the years. Starting in the 1970s, Puerto Rican immigrants became the largest ethnic group to live in the area roughly defined by Bloomingdale Avenue to the north, Western Avenue on the east, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the south, and Pulaski Road to the west.